Barbara Strozzilaan 336
1083 HN Amsterdam
The Netherlands
gssbsecretariat@globalreporting.org

Item 04 – GRI Topic Standard Projectfor Biodiversity – Proposed members
for the technical committee
For GSSB information - work in progress
Date

19 October 2021

Meeting

21 October 2021

Project

GRI Topic Standard Project for Biodiversity

Description

The Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) has identified the review of
GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016 as a priority project for commencement in 2021.
This paper presents an update of the proposed Technical Committee composition
for information of the GSSB. Please note that at this stage, nominations from thebusiness, investment institution and labor constituencies are still being confirmed.
Within two weeks we expect the nominations to be confirmed. The GSSB will
receive an updated proposed Technical Committee composition for approval bymeans of an electronic vote.

This document has been prepared by the GRI Standards Division and is made available to observers
at meetings of the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB). It does not represent an official
position of the GSSB. Board positions are set out in the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards. The
GSSB is the independent standard setting body of GRI. For more information visit
www.globalreporting.org.

© GRI 2021

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Contents
1.

Background ...................................................................................................................................... 3

2.

Selection process and criteria .......................................................................................................... 33.

Proposed Technical Committee Composition ................................................................................. 5

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1. Background3

The GSSB approved the project proposal for the GRI Topic Standard Project for Biodiversity following

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its meeting on 23 September 2021.

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In line with the GSSB’s Due Process Protocol, the GSSB confirmed its intention to form a multi-

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stakeholder Technical Committee (TC) to provide technical advice for the development of the revised

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Topic Standard.

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The GRI Standards Division (Standards Division) prepared the Terms of Reference for the Technical9

Committee, taking into account GSSB’s recommendations on the qualifications of TC members raised

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during its meeting on 1 July 2021 (see Item 05 – GRI Topic Standards Project for Biodiversity –11Technical Committee terms of reference).

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This document presents the proposed Technical Committee composition for information and13

discussion by the GSSB. At this stage, 13 candidates have confirmed their availability and interest in

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participating to the Technical Committee. Nominations are still pending from the business enterprise,

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investment institution and labor constituencies. Once these nominations are confirmed, the GSSB will

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receive an updated proposed Technical Committee composition for approval by electronic voting.

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2. Selection process and criteria

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In line with the due process protocol, Technical Committee (TC) members are appointed by the GSSB

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and they should reflect a balance of multi-stakeholder constituencies. The TC will aim to have at least20

one person drawn from each of the constituencies on which the membership of the GSSB is based:

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business enterprise, civil society, investment institution, labor, and mediating institution.

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The principal criterion for selecting TC members relevant knowledge and experience relating to23business and biodiversity, including ecosystems. This includes familiarity with the goals and targets of24

the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and experience in identifying and measuring impacts of25

businesses on biodiversity.

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In addition, the following criteria will be considered:27•

relevant knowledge of sustainability reporting on biodiversity;

28•

familiarity with the needs of users of sustainability reports;

29•

related experience with multi-stakeholder initiatives;

30•

understanding of and willingness to work in a consensus-based, multi-stakeholder working

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group.

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The Standards Division aimed to ensure that the proposed composition represents a balanced

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set of perspectives and expertise in different content-related areas, including:34•

development of reporting guidelines and metrics for biodiversity;

35•

research in biodiversity reporting practices and stakeholders’ information needs;

36•knowledge in various content areas, e.g., land use change, impacts on marine environment,

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access and benefit sharing;38•

different backgrounds in economic, environmental, and social fields;

39•

knowledge and development of relevant authoritative instruments such as post-2020 global

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biodiversity framework issued by the Convention on Biological Diversity and IPBES

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assessments.

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The Standards Division also aimed to ensure alignment where possible with other relevant initiatives

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for biodiversity reporting.

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The proposed TC membership includes 17 to 19 members across the following constituencies:

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•

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Business enterprises: 2 candidates representing the cosmetic and chemical sectors
and 2 pending candidates from the extractives and agri-food sectors.

47•

Civil Society: 4 candidates

48•

Investment institutions: 1 candidate and 2 pending candidates

49•

Mediating Institutions: 6 candidates

50•

Labor: 1 or 2 pending candidates

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Geographical distribution of membership, gender and cultural diversity are also considerations.

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However, the proposed TC composition has a strong representation from the North American and

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European regions, where most of the expertise is concentrated. The Standards Division is pursuing

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nominations of experts from other regions and will ensure that other regional views are represented

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during the public comment period.

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3. Proposed Technical Committee Composition

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Table 1. Proposed Technical Committee Composition (confirmed candidates)
#

Name

Title

Organization

Constituency

RegionExtract of background and experience

1

Raphaëlle
ArchambeaudSicot

Sustainability
Director

L’OCCITANEGroup

Business
Enterprise

EuropeRaphaëlle Archambeaud joined L’OCCITANE en Provence brand in 2008 for its
values, its environmental commitments and community investment. She spent then
10 years in International Marketing for the brand, up to the position of Skincare
Director where she initiated a new ambition and dynamic for the brands
environmental and social commitments. In 2018, she took the position of
Sustainability Director for the Group to extend this strategy and ambition to the whole
company (6 brands, 90 distribution countries, 3 production facilities) – and started at
the same time a Master in Sustainability Management in Geneva Business School.
She is also a volunteer facilitator of Climate Fresk, a workshop to explain Climatechange, its causes and consequences and use it to raise awareness on her
professional and personal networks.

2

Simon Gobert

Sustainability
Performanceand Reporting
Manager

DSM

Business
Enterprise

EuropeSimon is responsible for external reporting of DSM’s Sustainability performance andensuring that we continuously improve our sustainability performance. He is theSustainability manager for DSM’s Integrated Annual Report, where he is responsible
for reporting in compliance with the GRI Standards: Comprehensive option. DSM’s
Annual Report is subject to a Reasonable assurance engagement which Simon leadson the DSM side. He is part of DSM’s working group on biodiversity, which iscurrently investigating the use of improving the use of digital tooling to measure our
proximity to, and impact on, biodiversity. This group would be closely engaged for therevision of the biodiversity standard. In 2022, DSM aims to appoint a biodiversity
lead. At this time, Simon would evaluate, together with GRI, the most valuable andappropriate path forward regarding participation in the Technical Committee.

3

Gerard Bos

Director of the
GlobalBusiness and

IUCN

Civil Society

EuropeGerard Bos is Director of the Global Business and Biodiversity Programme at theInternational Union of the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 2012. He is
passionate for driving Transformational Change through multi-sector collaborative
platforms with the aim to challenge current and future business models of the

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Biodiversity
Programme

corporate sector. In order to get to a sustainable world that values and conserves
nature, decision makers in business, civil and government need to systematically
explore how to avoid or mitigate any negative impact and optimize the opportunities
to scale up the positive impact on people and nature. This is at the heart of theBusiness engagement strategy at IUCN.
He believes valuing Natural Capital and integrating Nature-based Solutions incorporate decision making are two critical next big game changer toward a moresustainable future.
Gerard’s career started in the banking world followed by many years in finance,
procurement and supply chain roles in the building materials sector. He has working
experience on all continents, lived in many countries and speaks fluently fivelanguages.

4

Rebekah
ChurchGlobal Lead
Biodiversity
Stewardship

WWF

Civil Society

EuropeAs an environmental lawyer and advisor with over a decade of experience inbiodiversity conservation, sustainability and corporate governance Rebekah has
extensive experience identifying, assessing and measuring the impacts of businesson nature. In her role as WWF’s Global Lead Biodiversity Stewardship she is leading
the development and implementation of a corporate biodiversity stewardshipmanagement framework. This work also includes the development of tools to help
the private sector understand and manage the risks and opportunities they may facein relation to their biodiversity impacts and dependencies. The stewardshipframework guides corporate engagement on biodiversity risk and opportunity
analysis, and the development of business cases, implementation strategies, goals,
targets, and KPIs. She is also supporting the WWF Network in integrating thebiodiversity stewardship approach into corporate partnerships to support the analysisof biodiversity risk linked to value chain activities; the avoidance and mitigation ofrisks via meaningful strategies, goals and science-based targets for nature;investment into positive biodiversity impact; and the monitoring, reporting and public
disclosure of biodiversity impacts.
From 2018 to 2021 Rebekah acted as Senior Counsel, Sustainability and Climate
Change for BMO Financial Group. In this role she initiated the development of anindustry-leading biodiversity framework for the 8th largest bank in North America.
This work included evaluating biodiversity impacts throughout the value chain(including impacts related to corporate client operations across a variety of sectors),
as well as engaging with the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative to alignlending and investment portfolios with international biodiversity targets. She also

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participated in the Biodiversity Working Group of the Equator Principles Association,
and acted as Chair of the Cross-Sector Biodiversity Initiative, an organization seeking
to develop best practices for biodiversity conservation in the extractive industries. In
this role Rebekah supported the production of BMO’s public disclosures onsustainability issues, including meeting requirements under GRI, CDP, SASB, TCFD
and emerging regulations made pursuant to the EU Sustainable Finance Action Plan.
From 2012 to 2018, in her role as Policy Lead, Environmental Protection with theEnvironmental Commissioner of Ontario, she provided cutting-edge research andthought leadership on biodiversity conservation.
5

Sue Mulhall

Global Lead,
Business andBiodiversity
Partnerships

BirdLife
International

Civil Society

Asia

6

Alexandra
Sangmeister

Director

Marine Watch
International

Civil Society

North
America

Alexandra is the Founder and Executive Director of Marine Watch International.
MWI’s mission is to protect the oceans by promoting the sharing of information andfostering collaboration among people and organizations working in ocean
conservation around the world. MWI partnered with the Foundation Center to launch
FundingtheOcean.org, an online knowledge hub designed to track, inform and inspire
ocean conservation philanthropy. Alexandra has over 30 years of experience inconservation, development, and international scientific research. Organizations that
she has worked for include the Smithsonian Institution, California Academy of
Sciences, San Francisco Zoo, The Marine Mammal Center, and WildAid. For the last
five years, she has also worked in Data Services for a financial technology company,
SS&C Advent. Advent is a leading provider of portfolio management and accounting
solutions and services to the world's leading institutional asset and wealthmanagement firms. She recently completed the Sustainable Capitalism and ESG
Certification at Berkeley Law.

7

GaroBatmanianGlobal Leadfor Forests,
LandscapeBiodiversity

World Bank

Investment
institutions

North
America

Garo is the Global Lead for Forests, Landscape Biodiversity responsible forcoordinating the implementation of an integrated green agenda. Garo coordinates
manages the Global Partnership for Sustainable and Resilient Landscapes(PROGREEN), and the Forest Investment Program (FIP). Garo is the World Bank
focal point on the International Consortium to Combat Wildlife Crime (ICCWC),
Convention on Biological Diversity, the Collaborative Partnership on Forest (CPF),

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and the chair of the Finance Task Force of the UN Decade for Ecosystem Restoration
Initiative.
He has previously worked in the World Bank offices in Brazil and China. Garo has
extensive experience in environmental management, forestry, carbon finance, andrural development and has led or been involved in the Bank’s analytic work andlending operations focusing on environmental sustainability.
Earlier in his career, he was the LAC Program Director of WWF-USA, and the first
CEO of the Worldwide Fund for Nature Brazil (WWF-Brazil). Garo is also the founderof FSC-Brazil, served as its first chairman and led the process of developing national
standards for natural forest management in the Amazon and for plantations.
Garo holds a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of Georgia, USA.
8

Professor Jan
Bebbington

Professor,
CentreDirector

Lancaster
University

MediatingInstitutions

EuropeJan Bebbington works at Lancaster University and published on topics such the
Sustainable Development Goals; sustainability science; motivations and rationales forstandalone reporting; carbon accounting; sustainability assessment and accounting
education. Jan is involved in a long-term collaboration between ecologists andsustainability scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre that aims to provide
knowledge to a practice-based cohort of seafood companies who are seeking toactively contribute to ocean stewardship (focusing on SDG 14 – Life Below theWater). The project is yielding insight into the differences between accountability andstewardship as well as the issues in establishing organizational control over supply
chains and reporting meaningfully on performance.
Alongside her academic work, Jan has also contributions to the practice and policy
communities in a variety of roles including, for example, being the Vice Chair(Scotland) of the Sustainable Development Commission from 2006 to 2011. The roleof the Commission (a part of the UK Government) was to promote sustainable
development across the UK and all sectors of society, particularly within Government.
In 2021 Jan was part of a panel of experts for the Intergovernmental Panel of
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services and the Business and Biodiversity working
group.

9

SharonBrooks

Deputy Headof Business
andBiodiversity

UNEP-WCMCMediatingInstitutions

EuropeSharon Brooks is Deputy Head of Business and Biodiversity at UNEP-WCMC.
Sharon oversees a portfolio of work with an emphasis on nature related metrics,
targets and data for business, and has experience with a range of industry sectors
including extractives, agriculture, and finance. Sharon has led projects related toPage 8 of 10

private sector standards, methods, and tools to assess, monitor and report on
biodiversity throughout value chains, including prior work with GRI on developing anapproach for reporting on ecosystem services. Sharon has over 20 years ofexperience in international conservation, an MSc in Applied Ecology andConservation, and a PhD in the field of Conservation and Development.
10

Annelisa Grigg

Director

Global BalanceMediatingInstitutions

EuropeAnnelisa has more than 20 years of experience advising companies and civil societyon the business risks and opportunities associated with the loss of nature. She
combines a technical background in conservation biology with financial accounting
knowledge. She started her career as a sustainability consultant with accounting firm
KPMG, later working in leadership roles within environmental groups Fauna & FloraInternational and the United Nations Environment Programme World Conservation
Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC).
Annelisa recently spearheaded efforts to create broad agreement on corporate
biodiversity indicators creating the Aligning Biodiversity Measures for BusinessInitiative.
Annelisa now specializes in the integration of biodiversity into natural capitalassessments, corporate biodiversity indicators and disclosure and the integration of
biodiversity into business strategy and financial decision making. She is a long-term
advisor to Aviva on the inclusion of biodiversity criteria within its stewardship fundrange.
Annelisa has an M.Phil. in Environment and Development and a B.A. in Zoology from
Cambridge University.

11

ThomasMaddoxGlobal Director
for Forests and
Land

CDP

MediatingInstitutions

EuropeThomas has worked on the interface between business and the environment fortwenty years. He has a Ph.D. in ecology from University College, London and an
MBA from the University of Cambridge Judge Business School and currently works
for CDP as the Global Director for Forests and Land. In this role he is responsible for
the CDP Forests Questionnaire and the various projects associated with this,including major grants from NORAD and USAID. He also plays a key role in thedevelopment of CDP’s strategy, including the expansion of CDP’s remit to incorporatea broader definition of environmental impact. This includes direct responsibility for theincorporation of biodiversity into the disclosure cycle – a process that was initiated in
2021.

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As part of this, he is a member of the CDSB Biodiversity Technical Working Groupand also works closely with the SBTN. He previously initiated and coordinated a
project that subsequently evolved into the ALIGN project for standardising
approaches to measuring corporate biodiversity impacts. Thomas also has a long
history of working with standards bodies. He is a current board member for
Responsible Steel and for the Roundtable for Responsible Soy and has previously
been actively involved in a variety of voluntary environmental industry standards.
12

Maria Julia
Oliva

DeputyDirector

UEBTMediatingInstitutions

EuropeMaria Julia Oliva is Deputy Director of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT). She’s
been with UEBT for over 12 years and, in addition to her role in senior management,
coordinates training, advisory services and technical support for UEBT members andpartners on policy and legal issues such as access and benefit sharing, due
diligence, and community engagement. Julia has held several positions ininternational organisations and published widely on the interface between
sustainability, trade and intellectual property. She is part of the Board of Directors of
the ISEAL Alliance. Julia has a law degree from the University of Mendoza and an
LL.M in environmental law, cum laude, from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis
and Clark College.

13

Leah Samberg

Scientist,
GlobalPrograms

Rainforest
Alliance /Accountability
Framework
Initiative (AFi)MediatingInstitutions

North
AmericaDr. Leah Samberg is a scientist with the Rainforest Alliance’s Global Policy team. She
works as part of the Accountability Framework Initiative’s Backbone Team, where sheleads the AFi’s activities on monitoring, disclosure, and linkages between
deforestation and GHG emissions.
Prior to joining the Rainforest Alliance, Leah worked as a research scientist looking atlinks between smallholder farming, livelihoods, and conservation, including for
University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment, the Nature Conservancy, theUniversity of California Santa Cruz, and as a Fulbright Scholar in Ethiopia.
Leah has a doctorate from the Environmental Studies program at UC Santa Cruz,and a BA in Ecology from Dartmouth College.

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